Recent Increase In Great White Encounters SoCal

[Water_Addict_80]

With a 130 yes you are covering half your body but with a 80 a little less. The dives are at night so visibility is drastically reduced even with a sharks ability they would que in on the vibrations in the water and come for a look, then maybe a test bite. These are usually fatal, if you are 600 meters into a surface swim the odds are you are going to bleed out. Does not stop me from diving but I do carry two lengths of surgical tubing in my dive pockets whistling the jaws theme is a good idea I will try it next dive!


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[gsk3]

One reason I like diving off my island... you're in deep water quickly so generally no need for a long surface swim. Yes, I know... my current wetrsuit looks like it has been attacked by great whites repeatedly.

Didn't realize how true this was until I dove the Infidel for the ghost net cleanup this weekend. 150fsw and barely off the island.

 

[Bopper]

Most of them. Pacific Coast Shark News

Damn. They love Manhattan Beach.

Here's a freaky one:

Carlsbad — “My friend Mary and I had just finished surfing, went ashore and dressed and went down to the beach and watched a surfer paddle out through the wash to enter the water. After about 20 minutes I was looking out at the surfer, who was all alone, and saw a solid black fin about 16 inches high protrude above the water about 20 feet from the surfer. It made a beeline toward the surfer at a speed of about 40 miles an hour. I screamed at my friend; 'look, look,…Shark, Shark.' We both stood up and I ran across the sand giving the shark signal to the surfer who was paddling toward shore. Suddenly I heard my friend yell; 'Look, oh my god it breached.' She had seen the shark come out of the water partially with something in its mouth and headed out to deep water. It was grey in color with white around its mouth. When the unknown surfer came in I asked; 'did you see that shark'? He then stated, with a very concerned look, 'I heard a seal scream, I turned around and looked to see a glimpse of a fin. I knew it wasn't a Dolphin so I came in.' He said he then saw me on the beach giving the shark signal my hand on my head and knew he had seen a shark.' The surfer was very shocked. I really thought the guy was going to be attacked, however, after speaking to him it must have been chasing the seal.” Please report any shark sighting, encounter, or attack to the Shark Research Committee.
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[Peter_C]

even with a sharks ability they would que in on the vibrations in the water and come for a look, then maybe a test bite. These are usually fatal, if you are 600 meters into a surface swim the odds are you are going to bleed out.

Most shark bite incidents are NOT fatal. They do inflict a lot of damage though.

 

[Water_Addict_80]

Bites are not fatal I worry about the bleed out


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[Peter_C]

Bites are not fatal I worry about the bleed out

This page clearly disproves your concern, showing only a 6% death rate from shark bites since the year 2000. You should really be more worried about drive by shootings and traffic accidents in SoCal
Annotated List of Shark Attacks Along the Pacific Coast 2000 - Present

 

[drbill]

Has anyone actually been attacked from below during a surface swim?

I used to assume I was perfectly safe diving close to the bottom since I knew of no GWS that had learned to bury in the sand and ambush prey as it swam above the shark, and it was always assumed they attacked from below not above. However, after seeing two giant sea bass with large crescent shaped bite marks on their dorsal side, I realized GWS will also attack from above. Of course I'm not particularly concerned about GWS since I'm blowing a lot of bubbles!

 

[AfterDark]

Damn. They love Manhattan Beach.

Here's a freaky one:

Carlsbad — “My friend Mary and I had just finished surfing, went ashore and dressed and went down to the beach and watched a surfer paddle out through the wash to enter the water. After about 20 minutes I was looking out at the surfer, who was all alone, and saw a solid black fin about 16 inches high protrude above the water about 20 feet from the surfer. It made a beeline toward the surfer at a speed of about 40 miles an hour. I screamed at my friend; 'look, look,…Shark, Shark.' We both stood up and I ran across the sand giving the shark signal to the surfer who was paddling toward shore. Suddenly I heard my friend yell; 'Look, oh my god it breached.' She had seen the shark come out of the water partially with something in its mouth and headed out to deep water. It was grey in color with white around its mouth. When the unknown surfer came in I asked; 'did you see that shark'? He then stated, with a very concerned look, 'I heard a seal scream, I turned around and looked to see a glimpse of a fin. I knew it wasn't a Dolphin so I came in.' He said he then saw me on the beach giving the shark signal my hand on my head and knew he had seen a shark.' The surfer was very shocked. I really thought the guy was going to be attacked, however, after speaking to him it must have been chasing the seal.” Please report any shark sighting, encounter, or attack to the Shark Research Committee.
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That could have ended very differently with everyone but the seal wondering why the shark attacked the surfer.

---------- Post added December 24th, 2013 at 09:18 AM ----------

I used to assume I was perfectly safe diving close to the bottom since I knew of no GWS that had learned to bury in the sand and ambush prey as it swam above the shark, and it was always assumed they attacked from below not above. However, after seeing two giant sea bass with large crescent shaped bite marks on their dorsal side, I realized GWS will also attack from above. Of course I'm not particularly concerned about GWS since I'm blowing a lot of bubbles!

Don't seals blow bubbles?!

 

[vladimir]

This page clearly disproves your concern, showing only a 6% death rate from shark bites since the year 2000. You should really be more worried about drive by shootings and traffic accidents in SoCal
Annotated List of Shark Attacks Along the Pacific Coast 2000 - Present

Most of those victims were surfing. I would expect surfers to be closer to shore and within sight of other people. If that is so, the OP would be more likely to bleed to death if he were bitten. He swims 700 meters out to the kelp.

Of course you can't reliably extrapolate from such a small data set, but 1/4 of the divers on your list died, while only 1 out of 51 of the surfers who were bitten died.

I do agree that traffic accidents are a bigger concern, but he probably already wears a seatbelt and drives defensively.

 

[Water_Addict_80]

Vladimir, seat belts and driving defensively is right. You nailed the original post as well, sometimes when you are assessing the situation you look at the variables, the biggest in this one is time and distance.


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